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RE: Is Hive Watcher's doing a good job?
Well, juries in the US can actually rule that the law is the problem, not actions of the defendant. It's called Jury Nullification, and judges hate, hate, hate it. They often caution juries, dismiss attorneys, and start trials over if jury nullification is mentioned. They've even muzzled defendants so they can't speak out of order at trial. American juries are yet one of the most powerful vestiges of actual democracy left in the country, since voting at the national level is merely a ritual and ballot box stuffing or burning the ballots of the challenging candidate tend to decide elections where more than a few million dollars are spent on the contest. Small local elections are both more effective in controlling local polities, and more likely to be decided by the actual voters, because there's less money involved, and teams of ballot farmers cost too much.
Thus, when the wrong candidate gets in office and passes bad laws, juries have authority to nullify such laws during trials of people accused of breaking them, as well as declare the defendant guilty or not guilty. I think very highly of juries, but have been disappointed with jurors, because so many of them aren't very competent to understand technical issues, are bamboozled by their indoctrinations and propaganda, or aren't very attentive or courageous when human rights are violated by laws and courts.
I have been on juries, which is where I formed my opinion.
That is very interesting. I didn't know about Nullification. That's a great tool to counteract stupid laws. I would be interested in statistics, how often it happened that Nullification was successful. Is this ever in the media?
Yeah, I bet that this is not very well received from those who are in full line with none sensical regulations.
People here in my country who do not abide by the law, sometimes hope that someone accuses them and then a trial in court takes place. That is, of course, a high risk that your case will be judged against you.
It tells a lot about the state of affairs if those very tools to put things in balance are neither known nor often enough used.
I was attending a trial not so long ago and the result was disappointing since the judge decided against the woman accused. But what was worth it for me to watch it was that I saw how the judge actually struggled with the case and said some things which impressed me. It was obvious to me that he actually would have liked to decide in favour of the defendant, but couldn't find the courage to do so.
But when the prosecutors responded to his questions to them in such a way that they thought the defendant was guilty from the outset and it became obvious that they did, he became quite annoyed and told them: "If that's the case, that you want to ignore what you've heard here, we could save ourselves any trial!" He did indeed say a few other intelligent things, but on the whole it was not enough to secure an acquittal. He tried hard to work the prosecutors so that they could have done the difficult task of dropping the charges (which would obviously have been the best solution for him), but finally, after four tough sessions, he did what he did.
However, it was important for me to witness this live and to realise that things are often not as black and white as we see them from a distance.
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